7 Ways to Support Your Teen’s Mental Health This Summer

Summer in Tampa brings sunshine, thunderstorms, and a much-needed break from the daily school grind. For teens, it can be a time of rest and freedom—but it can also bring challenges like isolation, disrupted routines, and emotional ups and downs. As a parent or caregiver, you have a unique opportunity to support your teen’s mental health during this slower season.

Here are 7 ways to help your teen thrive mentally and emotionally this summer:

1. Create a Balanced Routine

While your teen may be thrilled to sleep in, too much lack of structure can increase anxiety or low mood. Aim for a gentle rhythm to the day—think consistent wake-up times, regular meals, and a balance of downtime, chores, social time, and physical activity. This doesn't mean a rigid schedule, just enough structure to give the day some shape.

2. Encourage Meaningful Activities

Help your teen discover or deepen interests that bring a sense of purpose—whether it’s a summer job, volunteering at a local nonprofit in Tampa, taking an art or coding class, or starting a small garden. Engaging in something meaningful can boost self-esteem and reduce feelings of aimlessness.

3. Support Social Connection

Teens are wired for connection, but they may still struggle with loneliness, especially if friends are traveling or unavailable. Encourage in-person hangouts when possible or help them plan something low-key, like a movie night or beach day at Clearwater or Picnic Island. Social skills take practice, and summer is a great time to build them.

4. Normalize Conversations About Mental Health

Use the slower pace of summer as an opportunity to check in without pressure. Instead of asking direct questions like “Are you okay?”, try openers like:

• “How are you feeling lately with the shift into summer?”

• “What’s been on your mind these days?”
  You can also share your own feelings to model openness and emotional literacy.

5. Encourage Physical Activity (in a Florida-friendly way)

Exercise is a proven mental health booster, but with Tampa’s heat, flexibility is key. Early morning walks, swimming, paddleboarding, or indoor fitness classes can all support both body and mood. Bonus if you can do something active together—it’s a great way to connect without pressure to talk.

6. Set Digital Boundaries Together

Many teens spend more time on screens during the summer, which isn’t always a bad thing. But endless scrolling can take a toll. Collaborate with your teen on setting limits or doing a “tech-free hour” together each day. Encourage screen time that connects (like video chats or creative projects) over mindless scrolling.

7. Know When to Seek Extra Support

If your teen seems persistently down, anxious, withdrawn, or overwhelmed, it’s okay to reach out for help. Therapy can be a powerful tool for teens to explore emotions and build coping strategies in a safe space.

Looking for Extra Support? Join Our Summer Social Skills Group for Teens in Tampa

This summer, we're offering a supportive Teen Social Skills Group in Tampa designed to help teens build confidence, practice communication tools, and navigate friendships in a safe, judgment-free environment. Led by licensed therapists, the group offers connection, fun, and therapeutic strategies your teen can carry into the school year and beyond.

📅 Spots are limited and filling fast
🧠 For Tampa teens
📍 Held at our Tampa office on Thursdays at 3 pm

Ready to learn more or reserve a space for your teen? Email hello@serenemindpsych.com

Your teen deserves a summer of growth, connection, and support—and we’d love to be part of their journey.

A Therapist Shares Thoughts on Ways to Love Summer

Aaah, it’s sweet summertime!  Our kids are out of school, or if we don’t have children at home, perhaps we’ve decided to take some time for ourselves this summer. Whether vacationing, stay-cationing, or simply taking some time to relax when we have a moment of peace after work, summertime can be ideal for connecting with oneself again, and refocusing on what is most important to us.  

Summertime can serve as a great time to reconnect with our values, strengthen coping mechanisms, and re-center ourselves. For school aged children, teens, and young adults, summer may serve as the ideal time to begin therapy. Oftentimes when planning for summer we think of all of the most enriching possible activities out there. We register our kids for a great summer camp, and plan educational trips to museums. We plan picnics outside at the beach, and splurge on all access passes to Adventure Island, (anything to beat the scorching Florida heat). We take time to travel, and to be outdoors. What we often overlook during the summer is helping our young ones, and ourselves, to work on our mental health.

The benefits of therapy are innumerable. Research indicates that 75% of individuals who enter therapy show some benefit (APA, 2017). The following are some benefits of attending therapy over the summer as I have identified. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and as you are reading I encourage you to open yourself up to what benefits you could see for yourself of going to therapy.

• Gain coping mechanisms In counseling we cultivate coping mechanisms that will be carried with us far beyond our time in the therapy room. Oftentimes when life throws us barriers, we develop coping mechanisms that don’t serve us. We may not even be aware of what these maladaptive mechanisms are. In therapy we learn to identify our not so helpful coping mechanisms, and to find what is healthy, and what works for us.

• Manage our stress The summer can be an ideal time to take a break from our usual routine, and to work through out stressors with our therapist. The act of going to therapy itself may also serve to reduce stress. Therapy means having regularly scheduled appointments to look forward to for y-o-u.

• Improve our concentration Whether we have a break from responsibilities this summer, or if we are still engaged in school and work, summer can be an excellent time to refocus, and to gain skills to help us concentrate throughout the year.

• Cultivate self-esteem It’s the dreaded time of year again when we get to see the beautiful (beautifully photoshopped) models showing off their tans and their ‘beach bodies’. Rather than focusing on trying to look like the celebrities we see, this summer perhaps we can turn inward to work on cultivating our self-esteem.

• Get a handle on our anxiety and depression Although we often think of wintertime as a time that individuals most often feel depressed and anxious, summertime can often bring those feelings to the forefront of our lives. The extra time off may be a relief, but it may also bring to light feelings we are coping with all year long. In therapy we can gain the skills we need to cope with feelings of anxiety and depression.

• Gaining insight of ourselves Our modern society doesn’t often provide us with opportunity (or time) to take a step back and think about ourselves as individuals. Therapy, for some, may be the first opportunity for a higher level of introspection, and may be an opportunity to feel truly heard and understood by a compassionate listener.

If you or a loved one has been on the fence about when the right time for counseling is, I hope you consider taking time for yourself this summer to find a counselor who is a good fit for you or your loved ones needs. Whether you are reading this post this summer, or if it’s any time of the year, I encourage you to find a clinician who will work alongside you while you work on yourself.